Sarah Snook and Elizabeth Debicki sweep The Golden Globes, but tough night for Margot Robbie
Elizabeth Debicki and Sarah Snook dominated the TV acting awards, while Margot Robbie’s Barbie was left with flat feet.
It’s shaping up to be the biggest fortnight of Australian stars Elizabeth Debicki’s and Sarah Snook’s careers.
Both swept the major acting categories at the2024 Golden Globe Awards, for their performances in the final seasons of two of the most talked-about shows of the decade: The Crown and Succession. With The Emmy Awards taking place next week, further glory for Snook and Debicki feels imminent.
But for Hollywood’s Golden Girl Margot Robbie, the evening was a bitter disappointment.
Debicki notched the Best Supporting Actor award for her turn as Princess Diana in the final season of The Crown. “This is just so astonishing to me,” the 33-year-old actor said in her acceptance speech, dedicated to her family back home “In Australia, hopefully in their pyjamas, watching this.”
Snook took the top honour in the TV drama actor category for her role as Shiv Roy, the ruthlessly ambitious daughter of a media magnate in HBO’s Succession. While she has competed – and won – in the Best Supporting Actress category in previous years, her performance in the final season of Succession elevated her to the top prize.
In her acceptance speech, the 36-year-old thanked Succession creator Jesse Armstrong, for casting her. “This show has changed my life,” she said.
Snook, clearly overwhelmed with joy, breathlessly rattled off her thank yous before she admitted, “This room is so intimidating,” and abruptly pirouetted offstage.
Succession, up for the most television awards, tied a record (with Mad Men and The X-Files) for the most wins in the best drama category. The series previously won for its second and third seasons in 2020 and 2022. Alongside Snook, actors Kieran Culkin and Matthew Macfadyen took home awards.
What was supposed to be Barbie’s big night left her with flat feet and irrepressible thoughts of failure. The Greta Gerwig film, the highest-grossing of the year, went into the Golden Globes as the most-nominated film of the evening, with nine. It left with only two wins.
The first for the best original song, with pop star Billie Eilish and her producer brother Finneas picking up a gong for the mournful ballad ‘What Was I Made For?’ The film also beat out Taylor Swift in the newly minted “Cinematic and Box Office Achievement” category — essentially a consolation prize for popular films. “We would like to dedicate this to every single person on the planet who dressed up and went to the greatest place on earth, the movie theatres,” said star Margot Robbie, accepting the award as a producer.
In the spirit of every prize winner using their speech to harp on about how filmmaking is a “team sport”, Australian screenwriter Tony McNamara can add a best picture trophy to his accolades. Poor Things, the psychosexual science-fiction rom-com that McNamara wrote for filmmaker and collaborator Yorgos Lanthimos, won best movie, comedy, or musical. Emma Stone, the film’s star, beat out Robbie for the Globe for best comedic actress.
Oppenheimer, entering the ceremony as the second most-nominated film of the evening with eight, emerged as the frontrunner in the coming Oscars race, winning five Globes, including best drama, directing, and both Cillian Murphy and Robert Downey Jr for acting.
Lily Gladstone became the first indigenous person to win a Golden Globe for Best Actress, for her role in Martin Scorsese’s historical epic Killers of the Flower Moon.